Kids Conference

This past weekend, our church held it's annual missions conference. Adam and I (Michelle) had been asked if we would do a mini-conference for the kids while their parents were in seminars. We said yes and set to work to try and make it fun, interesting, and educational for the kids.

The first morning, we made passports, complete with digital pictures and "traveled" to 10 different countries. We started close to home and "flew" to Mexico, Honduras, Ecuador, and Columbia. We learned about the kids in those cultures, made some yarn art, and played pogs. (Our missionaries to Ecuador said pogs are a BIG THING with the kids there so we dug out Adam's pogs from middle school and they were a huge hit with the 8 year olds of America too!) They got 4 stamps in their passports for each of the countries we went to. We then said goodbye to Latin America.

Next, we went to Africa and Asia complete with visits to Morocco, Uganda, Thailand and Japan. We read letters from missionaries in those countries telling us about the children they encounter every day. We tried delicious snacks from these various countries and did some ancient rubbings . . . on some tilapia. The Japanese apparently don't take kindly to "fish stories" so they used to do rubbings after it was caught to prove how big it really was. The kids thought this was great. Surprisingly, the girls were more interested in the fish and painting it than the boys were. 4 more stamps for their passports.

Finally, we were off to Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. We learned about the kids there but our visits were cut short. So much to do, so little time. 2 more stamps. All in all, we made it to 5 different continents (errr, 5 decorated rooms) and learned a lot about our friends across the seas! The kids had a good time and parents said that their kids played with their passports all afternoon. We are just hoping some of them will get actual passports and come visit us in Honduras some day!